Using email on a shared computer

It is the dream of every teenager to have their own computer, so they don't have to share it with their family. I know that was my dream when I was a teenager. Unfortunately, I had to wait until I was in college to afford my own personal laptop, but I was ecstatic on the day that I bought my personal laptop.

But until that day comes, you have to use the family computer. There are multiple reasons why using a shared computer is less than acceptable. First of all, your sibling or your parents will always be using the computer right when you want to use it.

So you will have to wait until they are done with their turn for you to finally get online. For some reason, parents will keep this rule even if you have to do online research for school. They seem to think that computer time is computer time no matter if it is for fun or school.

If you only get an hour a day on the computer, you have to research whatever you need for your school paper or project as fast as you can. Once your time is up on the computer for the day, there's no way you can negotiate with your parents to extend it.

Limited computer time is frustrating, but it is not the worst aspect of using the shared family computer.

One of the worst aspects of using a shared computer is that if you share the computer with the rest of your family, the actual owners of the computer, which is Mom and Dad, may feel the need to monitor everyone's activity. This is true if they have children under the age of 18 using the computer.

Depending on the type of software mom and dad install on the computer, it can just monitor what website you go to, or it can save every single little word you type and exactly what pages you load whenever you use the internet.

If it is the type of software that records everything you do, then that means every time you type in your password, the software will record the address of your email and password. If your guardians feel like it, they can log in and look at everything in your personal email.

To prevent anyone from stealing your login credentials and opening up your private email, you should use a temporary email service every time you need to send an email. By using a temporary email service, the monitoring software will still record what you write in the email. But since you will not be logging into your personal email, it will not record your login credentials.

Just be sure to tell the person you are emailing why you have to email them from a temporary email service every time you send an email. If you can, put a secret code word into each temporary email you sent, so the recipient knows it is from you and not from someone else.